28 Kod-FishinCt in the Nith. 



one yeai-'s end to another ? Salmon is a luxury, and unless con- 

 siderable alteration is made in the laws which regulate its capture 

 it will become a more expensive luxury as years go on. Rod- 

 fishing on the upper portions of many of our rivers has been 

 ruined. Few fish get up till quite late in the season, and we 

 upper proprietors, who are told that we have been most gener- 

 ously treated, in that while the poor net-fishers are not allowed to 

 fish, we are allowed to wield our rods for some six weeks and more 

 after the nets are off and have the chance of killing a fish or two 

 heavy in spawn, or black and utterly unfit for killing. 



Yet it is in the upper waters that the eggs are laid and the 

 fish reared. Can you wonder that upper proprietors cease to care 

 for the preservation of salmon and the watching of spawning 

 beds? Someone may say that the Board of Conservators put on 

 a watcher for the upper waters, but how many miles of river has 

 he to look after ? Can he prevent salmon being killed on the 

 spawning beds, or kelts being killed for salting ? Give the upper 

 proprietors a chance of a fair share of the fish hatched in their 

 waters, and then they will take an interest in the preservation of ' 

 the fish, and some would begin to rear salmon to stock their j 

 waters. It is my private opinion that if the nets were off for 

 three days in the week the upper proprietors would find it worth 

 their while to cultivate salmon, and in a few years' time net-fishers 

 at the mouth of the river would get many more fish than they do 

 now. 



It may perhaps seem to you that I am taking a very pessi- 

 mistic view of the prospects of rod-fishing, but really I have hopes. 

 There is a stir being made in the matter of trout-fishing in Scot- 

 land which will bear good fruit if anglers will support it. 



Meetings have been held in Edinburgh lately, with the object 

 of establishing a National Association, which if carried out will go 

 a great way towards improving the trout-fishing m our rivers ; and 

 if we could get the shepherds on our side, and make it worth their 

 while to watch the burns and spawning beds on their respective 

 beats, and get proprietors to do a little artificial rearing of trout, 

 a very marked effect would soon be produced. 



It is some thirty-five years ago that I began the artificial 

 rearing of trout, and it is so easy that any intelligent man might 

 be taught in a few lessons to take the eggs and impregnate them 

 and place them on some gravelly shallow, or in boxes in some 



